Dutch studio OMA has transformed a modernist building in Singapore into the Air Circular Campus and Cooking Club, adding a cylindrical orange steel frame encompassing a bar and kitchen.
Aiming to create a dining experience that encourages visitors to think about food and its connection to the environment, OMA altered the 1970s building and added outdoor paths to better connect it to the surrounding green space.
An orange steel cylinder cuts into the modernist building
Located on Dempsey Hill, a former British army barracks now known as a recreation destination, the Air Circular Campus and Cooking Club contains a restaurant, open kitchens, a research space and a cooking school.
It was originally built as a clubhouse for the Civil Service Club (CSC), providing sports and leisure activities for Singapore's civil servants. According to OMA, the studio made as few changes to the building as possible to minimise construction waste and preserve its modernist design. OMA added operable glazing to connect dining areas with the surrounding green space
A cylindrical orange steel frame cuts into the rectangular building towards the rear, containing a staircase, bar, kitchen and machine room.
"The newly installed cylinder indicates the coexistence of the old and the new," said OMA.
The cylindrical structure contains a staircase as well as a bar, kitchen and machine room
The front facade of the two-storey building was altered by opening up the ground floor dining spaces to con...